ESPN College Football

I love a good name. I hope you do, too. If you don't, you're going to hate this post.

Nevertheless, here we go. A couple hundred new players will be joining the Big 12 next year, and among them are players with great names. You ought to know by now, I love alliteration. That's one way to land on this team. Some share a name with someone notable. Some of them just roll off the tongue. All of them are unforgettable.

Here are the best:

Team MVP: Steele Jantz, QB, Iowa State: I mean ... obviously. I'm unsure of what a Jantz is, but if it's made of steel, you know your quarterback is in good shape.

Dreamius Smith, RB, Kansas: His himself came true as soon as he signed his letter of intent. A strong, strong candidate for team MVP.

Boston Stiverson, OG, Kansas State: We already have too many players in the Big 12 named for towns in Texas. It's time for expansion ... to the East Coast.

Floyd Raven, CB, Texas A&M and Le'Raven Clark, OT, Texas Tech: Both are always good for a solid quoth.

Quandre Diggs, CB, Texas: Mostly just awesome. Also, unique. It means "warrior" and if you Google "Quandre," results for Diggs are 10 of the first 11 that pop up.

Danzel Williams, RB, Oklahoma: He got game. His spin move is nicknamed "The Hurricane." You won't forget this titan. He's unstoppable, and his teammates will find out when training day arrives this fall. Remember though, that's in Norman, not Philadelphia.

Spencer Drango, OT, Baylor: The Bears' top recruit should be fine unless he's lined up against a defensive lineman named Rocky. Fortunately, Oklahoma linebacker Rocky Calmus (another all-name teamer, by the way) is long gone from the Big 12. Any 2012 recruits named Apollo: Beware.

Beau Blackshear, DE, Baylor: Likely received a scholarship from every coach he introduced himself to.

JaQuarius Daniels, ATH, Iowa State: His age is dawning.

Cody Whitehair, OT, Kansas State: Name aside, he still has all four years of eligibility remaining. And ladies, he's a brunette.

Miketavious Jones, CB, Oklahoma State: He's no Barkevious Mingo at LSU, but he's the closest thing to it.

Jaxon Shipley, WR, Texas: The Shipley name is nothing new when it comes to Big 12 receivers, but he's certainly the only "Jaxon" I've ever seen. Points for the new-age spelling.

Anybody get snubbed? Who deserves to be on the list.

Texas A&M Aggies

The class

Signees: 22 (three from junior college, five enrolled early)

Top prospects: Kicker Taylor Bertolet will likely spend a year behind starter Randy Bullock, and two signing-day steals are at the top of the list of possible future stars in Tim DeRuyter's defense. 6-foot-5, 230-pound Brandon Alexander is the nation's No. 32 defensive end, but the Aggies fully intend on using him as a linebacker. He picked the Aggies over the rival Longhorns the morning of signing day. Cornerback Floyd Raven also picked Texas A&M over Ole Miss on signing day as well, despite a letter of intent mixup.

Needs met: Bertolet answers a big need for the Aggies in 2012, as the nation's No. 2 kicker. Don't be surprised if Alexander gets some early playing time to help replace Von Miller and Michael Hodges, two of the team's top defenders and linebackers who exhausted their eligibility after the 2010 season. Shaun Ward, a Florida native, is also a top linebacking prospect who could help early.

Analysis: Texas A&M had to make a late push for what looked like a mediocre class early on. In early July, the Aggies had just seven commits (10th in the Big 12) and its best prospect was the nation's No. 53 athlete, Jonathon Henderson. But Mike Sherman made a late push and signed 10 recruits with the same or better recruiting grade from ESPNU and help give the Aggies a class that ranks in the middle of the Big 12. It's not a class that wows, but it's one that should be able to continue some of the momentum that Texas A&M established in the 2010 season.

ESPN recruiting grade: B-minus

Texas A&M signee Floyd Raven was one of the biggest stories of National Signing Day when Ole Miss discovered his signature on the letter of intent sent to Oxford, Miss., this morning was a forgery.

Raven's mother signed his letter for him, but Raven says "it was an honest mistake."

"Long story short, my mom thought she was helping me out,” Raven told The Associated Press Wednesday evening. "I wasn’t home and she sent it in. I never told her I had changed my mind to Texas A&M. I forgive her for it."

Raven ranks as the nation's No. 18 cornerback and was confirmed as Texas A&M's 22nd signee of 2011 earlier this evening.

From the AP story:

Mississippi athletic spokesman Kyle Campbell said the school had trouble reading the initial letter of intent sent by fax machine, so the school requested another. Raven declined.

Raven, a Reserve, La., native, said Ole Miss coaches were "very understanding" of the problem.

Cornerback Floyd Raven has officially signed his letter of intent to Texas A&M, the school announced on Wednesday night.

Raven ranks as the nation's No. 18 cornerback, but Ole Miss received a letter from Raven earlier on Wednesday. Raven's mother reportedly forged the letter of intent to Houston Nutt in Oxford, Miss., but presumably upon discovering that was the case, Nutt allowed Raven to choose a different school.

"We got a signature, but I want people who really want to be here," Nutt told reporters on Wednesday. "His mom really wanted him here in the worst way. Let's leave it at that."

Raven, a 6-foot-2 native of Reserve, La. gives the Aggies 22 signees for the 2011 class.